Ashton appoints Danish ambassador as adviser

Poul Skytte Christoffersen, Denmark’s ambassador to the European Union, has been appointed as a special advisor to Catherine Ashton, the Union’s foreign policy chief. Christoffersen, who takes up his new post on Monday (1 March), is to support Ashton in setting up the Union’s new diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service (EEAS). He will be replaced as permanent representative to the EU by Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, Denmark’s current ambassador to China.

Lene Espersen, Denmark’s foreign minister, stressed the importance of the EEAS. “The establishment of the EEAS is one of the biggest challenges we face as we continue the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty,” she said. “The EEAS will be essential in developing a more coherent and visible EU foreign policy.”

She said that she was pleased with the selection of a Danish diplomat for the new position as Ashton’s advisor on the EEAS.

Christoffersen – a career diplomat with a degree in economics – is a Brussels insider. He was his country’s ambassador to the EU in 1995-2003, when he became ambassador to Italy. In 2006, he was appointed head of cabinet by Mariann Fischer Boel, the European commissioner for agriculture and a fellow Dane. He moved back into his old position as ambassador to the EU in 2009.